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REVIEW 



OF THE 



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EEPORTS OF THE 



ANNUAL VISITING COMMITTEES 



OF THE 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF THE CITY OF BOSTON, 



FOR 1845. 






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REVIEW 



OF THE 



REPORTS OF THE 



ANNUAL VISITING COMMITTEES 



Erratum. On the 9th page, 14th line from top, for 
"scurrility," read "severity." 



CITY OF BOSTON, 



1845. 



BOSTON: 

CHARLES STIMPSON. 

1846. 



-& 






REVIEW. 



A "City Document" of no ordinary character was, early 
in the last Autumn, distributed to the good people of this 
Metropolis. It is entitled, " Reports of the Annual Visit- 
ing Committees of the Public Schools of the City of Boston, 
1845." On the expediency of making public such a doc- 
ument, there has, doubtless, arisen some difference of 
opinion in the community, as, it is reported, there was in 
the Committee. Much that may properly come before the 
constituted authorities and give shape to their proceedings, 
is not suitable to lay before the people to prejudice their 
opinions ; — especially when, as in this case, the course of 
the Authorities has been in one direction, and their pub- 
lished papers point in another. For, in fact, the tendency 
of this document is to create utter distrust in the school 
system of the city, and in nearly all the teachers by whom 
it is administered, while the Committee which put it forth, 
left the system unchanged, and re-elected all the Masters, 
save four. 

It is much to be hoped, that before the citizens read the 
" reports" they read the -" resolutions " of the whole Com- 
mittee respecting their publication, which appeared on the 
second page of the "document," one of which is on this 
•wise :—" Resolved, That in ordering the Reports on the 
Grammar and Writing Schools to be printed and distrib- 
uted, this Board are not to be understood as adopting or 
rejecting the vieivs therein contained, or expressing any 



opinion respecting them. And that this resolution be print- 
ed with the Report." For, however this fact may impli- 
cate the good judgment of the Committee, it leaves the 
reports sustained by no other sanction than that of the 
names subscribed to them. And, perhaps, before I shall 
have done with the subject, I may make it appear that 
some of the names which claim the distinction of gracing 
these Reports, (or being disgraced by them,) are not so 
much responsible for the matter of them as the public 
have been left to suppose. I will not enlarge upon the 
strangeness of that act of the late School Committee which 
has thus thrown out to the community a mass of crude 
opinions upon institutions which are linked with our dear- 
est interests, — opinions so novel and uncertain, that these 
delegated curators of the establishments which they con- 
cern, could decide neither on " adopting or rejecting" 
them. There were some strange elements in the Com- 
mittee, and at the period of this publication, these discord- 
ant elements had wrought matters into a strange condition. 
Weariness of resistance to iheir protean vagaries, betrayed 
the Board, at last, into a measure to which their fresh, 
unjaded judgment could never have assented. To a per- 
severance on the part of the majority of the Committee, 
only surpassed by the pertinacity of their restless asso- 
ciates, the City is indebted for the conservation of its long 
tried, and eminently successful public school system. No 
set of men ever gave a larger portion of gratuitous time 
and labor to the public service than they. That they 
were tasked beyond their power of patient continuance in 
well doing, is more a matter of regret than of surprise. 
Chiefly is this final concession to be deplored, because it 
is an encouragement to mischief to strive by dogged per- 
sistency to accomplish purposes which justice and sound 
reason will resist to their uttermost. 

The inquiry may naturally arise in the reader's mind, 
' Why meddle with a defunct production, on which the 



public has already passed a very emphatic judgment at 
the ballot box 1 ' For no other reason than this — gross 
misrepresentation of the schools has been committed to 
the press. It has not been exposed and confuted. The 
record abides : scrlpta litera manet. And though a tri- 
umphant majority of the citizens of Boston have borne 
witness that they do not believe these slanders, yet it is 
due to future years, that their refutation should follow 
them, in equally permanent form. Moreover, though a 
majority of the people sustained the schools and rebuked 
their assailants, a few betrayed, by their votes, that their 
minds had been perverted, and their imaginations bewil- 
dered by the misstatements and specious schemes put 
forth in these reports. And again, though the public 
have not been led into actual disaffection against the pres- 
ent school system, none can tell to what extent the con- 
fidence in it which once prevailed has been shaken. And, 
finally, though the adult population of this community 
may have been ever so slightly influenced by this impos- 
ing " document," yet how unhappy must be the unar- 
rested effect of some statements contained in it, upon the 
children now attending the common schools. The whole 
system of public instruction is declared to be sadly defi- 
cient, even inferior to that which obtains in the neighbor- 
ing towns : a majority of the masters described as mere 
vocal editions of the text-books, neither aspiring, nor 
competent to communicate any more knowledge, or in 
any other form, than that imparted in the books. The 
men whom they have heretofore esteemed as very foun- 
tains of information, children are now bidden to recognize 
as mere conduit-pipes, dribbling stale truths from shallow 
cisterns. From any source such suggestions would be 
mischievous to the ductile minds of the young, but from 
the guardians of the schools, the chosen literati of the 
city, for whose opinions their first lesson had taught them 
to entertain the most undoubting respect, these influences 
1* 



have fallen upon the scholars, with a power of detriment 
which the most successful resistance can but abate, — 
which long years can alone repair. All these considera- 
tions have seemed to enforce the propriety of a calm, yet 
plain and fearless Review of the Reports of the Annual 
Visiting Committees for 1845. It is published at a time 
when it camiot be suspected of having any reference to a 
city election. There is none of that studied adaptation to 
political effect in the juncture at which it is allowed to 
come before the public, which has characterized the mis- 
siles of those who have assailed the public schools, and 
their accomplished and faithful teachers. It is put forth 
for the honest purpose of reinstating the school system of 
the City in the confidence of all good citizens, and of 
directing attention to the source and " motive-power" of 
the attacks which have been recently made upon it, in 
such way as to forefend future annoyance from either the 
one or the other. 

The authorship of the following pages is a matter of 
the least possible concern. They must be judged on 
their own merits. — if they do not disclose some awk- 
ward truths respecting these " reports," and cast some 
strange lights and shadows on the prominent actors, 
and the stage manager who stands scarcely behind the 
scenes, the failure will proceed not from lack of material, 
but of skill to turn it to a proper use. Suffice it to say, 
that no master or masters in the Boston school service 
has touched his pen to this document, or is responsible for 
its publication. The writer is in no way interested in the 
vindication of their fame, or the continuance of their 
emoluments, except in so far as every honest man is con- 
cerned to see merit appreciated, and good service recom- 
pensed. He lays this spontaneous utterance of his own 
outraged feelings, and insulted understanding, an oblation 
on the shrine of Justice, in humble confidence that where 
she presides, it will be an accepted offering. 

Before we proceed to the internal examination of thes 



" reports," let us devote a few pages to a review of their 
history. Having no official access to the archives of the 
Committee, and no intimate converse with the knowing 
ones who could doubtless tell some things which they 
have not put on record, we can report but notorious facts, 
and such others as may be fairly inferred by a collation of 
those which are already in evidence before the world. 

Boston has not yet forgotten that most of its public 
teachers have, notwithstanding their large experience in 
the work of education, unhappily found their views on 
that subject at variance with the theories of the Hon. 
Horace Mann, the accomplished and astute Secretary of 
the Massachusetts Board. His prolific pen has been ex- 
ercising its fecundity on the subject of education for the 
last nine years. His small practical knowledge of a sci- 
ence which is eminently experimental, seems to have 
inspired him with no modesty in the expression of his 
opinions. Had more of the exuberant vigor of his mind, 
which has been so lavished on expression, been given to 
calm, deliberate, patient reflection, and docile inquiry, the 
world would have had less proof indeed of his activity, 
but more of his wisdom. He has written in haste, under 
spasmodic impulse, and his jealousy of any deliberate in- 
vestigation into the real merits of his doctrine, is very 
naturally in the ratio of his consciousness that it never 
had the moulding touch of a cool judgment to give it 
strength, or comeliness of proportion.* The Boston teach- 



* Of his multifarious works, read his own account, written a year and 
a half ago. " During the last .seven years, I have published six large 
volumes of School Abstracts, which contain as much reading matter as 
five of the great volumes of Sparks' Life of Washington. These abstracts 
contain selections from the School Committees' reports, principally man- 
uscript, all of which I have carefully read. These reports of Committees 
which I have examined for this purpose, I think would make at least 
fifteen such volumes as Sparks' Washington. * * * During the 
same time, the Annual Reports which I have written have amounted to 
eight hundred octavo pages. My correspondence has been at least 



ers, whose practice in the work of instruction had not 
been modified into conformity with the honorable Secre- 
tary's schemes, felt, at length, that his official station, and 
his fervent, captivating style, rendered his publications 
dangerous to the permanency of a sound public opinion 
on the momentous subject of popular education. They 
ventured therefore to join issue with him by publishing 
a review of some parts of his most voluminous Seventh 
Annual Report. The pages of their pamphlet were hardly 
dry, before a sheet of ''Observations" thereon, (subscribed 
with the initials of one whom Mr. Mann, in recompense for 
his service, eulogized as " that pure-minded, truth-seeking 
man,") was let off, the signal gun of that broadside which 
was soon to follow. It was for the most part gentle, like 
the character of its reputed author, and only demands 
notice in this connection, as containing a remarkable 
prophecy or adumbration of the events which have since 
followed. The augury is in these ominous words : "A 
current has been set in motion which is not to be checked. 
It will move onward. These gentlemen cannot stem it. 
* * Let men club together in common cause by scores 
or by thirties ; they may, doubtless, stay the tide for a 
time ; but the deep waves go surging on, and will at last 

three times as much as my reports. * * * I am now completing 1 
the sixth volume of the Common School Journal, every number of 
which — with the exception of those issued during my six months' 
absence abroad — I have prepared. * * * * I have delivered thir- 
ty-six lectures and addresses on education every year since my appoint- 
ment." To accomplish all this, and much more in other departments 
of labor, the Secretary declares that he has " made little difference be- 
tween day and night." The offspring of this " over-sensitive and over- 
worn spirit," in conformity with nature's law, bear the traces of this 
confusion. Light and darkness are so blended in them, as to diffuse a 
most obscure and confounding twilight. Should the honorable Secre- 
tary retain his office a few years longer, and continue subject to this 
cacoetlies scribendi — this literary diarrhoea — " I suppose that even the 
world itself could not contain the books that should be written." I can- 
not add with St. John, " Amen ! " 



reach even them.' 1 '' The surge did not disclose to the eye 
how deep, nor how far-reaching were the insatiate waves. 
Like the prophecies of inspiration, the predictions which I 
have put in italics — obscure at the time of their utter- 
ance — have been expounded by fulfillment. Mr. Mann's 
" over-sensitive " spirit could not, however, be quieted by 
the intervention of his friend. The tempest in his soul, 
like the winds in the cave of Eolus, struggled for egress. 
Printer's ink was scarcely black enough to be made the 
symbol of his gloomy and boding thoughts, — type-metal 
scarcely hard enough to withstand the melting heat of his 
excitement. His " Reply to the remarks of thirty- 
one Boston Schoolmasters," is a specimen of rancorous 
vituperation, and bilious scurrility, rarely equaled in the 
world of letters. I advert to that pamphlet in this place, 
to call attention to one or two expressions which harmo- 
nize with the vaticinations of " G. B. E." aforesaid. "I 
propose to call them," says Mr. Mann, "the 'Thirty-one.' 
This I do, without intending the slightest disrespect ; and 
I perceive no objection to it, unless, indeed, it may render 
that, hereafter, an unlucky number." The emphasis which 
attaches to these last words was given by their author. 
Their meaning is somewhat obscure,— like the famous 
response of the oracle, " Aio te Eaciden vincere posse" it 
might be afterward interpreted to signify one thing, or 
another, as events should direct. But its most palpable 
construction is this : — ill luck may therefore befall the 
individuals comprehended in that number which I now 
attach, as a mark of proscription, to the whole association. 
And again. " It (the conflict between him and the mas- 
ters) is a question of justice, of truth, of moral power, 
where annihilation awaits the wrong." Of course Mr. 
Mann, in this statement of the issue, regarded himself as 
the exponent "of justice, truth, and moral power," and the 
dissentient schoolmasters as representatives of " wrong." 
The italicised word indicates the destiny of the van- 



10 

quished, which of course he did not covet for himself or 
his cause, and, therefore, allotted in his own resolute pur- 
pose to his opponents. Moreover, Mr. Mann, looking for- 
ward with prescient eye to the unfolding results of this 
conflict, and gloating over the distress of men who shrink 
from impending " annihilation," utters the visions of his 
head in these portentous accents : " If I do not greatly 
mistake, it will cost them more sleep to have written the 
' Remarks,' than it did to write them." 

The reader is desired to keep these minatory expresssions 
of the Secretary and his ally in memory. A further devel- 
opment of events will, I think, show that they were not the 
language of mere effervescent feeling, but of deep, patient, 
implacable revenge. Hannibal's vow of eternal enmity to 
the Romans was not more faithfully kept, than has been 
and will be this settled purpose to annihilate the " un- 
lucky thirty-one.'''' They differed from Mr. Mann, and on 
the day that they uttered their dissent, began the opera- 
lion of that train of agencies, which, at length, brought out 
the Reports of the Annual Visiting Committees of 1845. 
The "deep waves" were then agitated, which, at first 
with frothy surgings, and afterwards with a treacherous 
ground -swell, have reached at last even to them. 

But let us proceed with what Mr. Mann would call the 
" ante-natal history" of these Reports. It will afford a 
striking exposition of the portentous language which I 
have already committed to the reader's memory. Very 
soon after the appearance of Mr. Mann's entertaining 
"reply" to the "thirty-one," in the Autumn of 1844, 
occurred the City Election. I call his pamphlet entertain- 
ing^ — that is its true characteristic. It was eminently 
calculated to catch popular favor : not cogent, nor philo- 
sophical ; for so, it would have required too much reflec- 
tion to give it acceptance with the mass ; but personal, 
pungent, witty, and sarcastic, and so adapted to gratify 
that universal, but degrading frailty of our nature, a relish 



11 

for the home thrusts which other people receive. Busy 
tongues were soon put in action, to cry up the necessity of 
a change in the Boston schools, and this, it teas said, could 
be done only by making preparatory changes in the School 
Committee. Who they were, that thus strove to sway 
public opinion^ and to give practical efficacy to the honor- 
able Secretary's malediction, it would be as impossible to 
specify now, as it was to find at the time. What " they 
say," has a most alarming influence in the political world. 
Few take the trouble to inquire who " they" are ; — and 
proceed at once to quadrate their own opinions, and con- 
form their action, to the dictum of this invisible autocrat, 
"THEY" — whose only influence results from the grim- 
ness and impudent inflexibility of his mask. The rumor 
that such a change must be had, brought together in the 
ward meetings all the malcontents, and discontents, and 
non-contents of the city, — that is, such as were averse to 
the schools, and the system of administration, — such as 
were yearning for something better, though not ^satis- 
fied with what they had ; and such as were mere change- 
lings, who live by experiment, — glory in revolution, and, 
out of pure benevolence, long to see the whole world as 
shiftless as themselves. So far as the hue and cry could 
be trusted as an index of popular opinion, Mr. Mann and 
his doctrines were quite in the ascendant. He had given 
the last blow, — and lookers-on are prone to consider the 
last stroke in a conflict decisive, until they see it returned. 
Favored by this prestige, his representatives succeeded in 
some of the wards in procuring the nomination of individ- 
uals for School Committee, who would favor the applica- 
tion of Mr. Mann's views, and, I will add, the gratification 
of his spite upon the Boston schools. Nomination and 
election are, under ordinary circumstances, nearly tanta- 
mount. It is enough for many voters that respectable 
men are named on a ticket. They accept, and deposit it 
in the ballot-box without raising questions concerning 



12 

their peculiar affinities. And so it happened that many 
electors were unconsciously implicated in the work of en- 
trusting the care of their schools to persons whose theory 
of education (if there be one compacted) fills, by its spirit- 
ual presence, the encephalon of the Hon. Horace Mann. 
The variety and character of the appliances, whereby 
something was accomplished in this sort, it would be dif- 
ficult to trace out. Thus much has transpired : that one 
individual; a candidate for election in one of the wards — 
(and, alas ! a successful one) — by some electro-magnetic 
telegraph, communicated his thoughts and wishes across 
the bay to sundry individuals, respecting the person who, 
in his judgment, " would be a good man for the office" of 
School Committee in their ward. The person so named 
having been a subordinate to his interested, 1 hough distant 
friend in one institution, would, by force of habit, it was 
doubtless thought, prove equally subservient in another.* 



* At a public meeting held at East Boston, on the evening of the 18th 
of August, 1845, the " following statement was made by a gentleman 
present, an active and influential member of the Whig party." 

[From the Boston Daily Times, of Sept. 1st.] 
Sometime last fall, previous to the Presidential election, Mr. 



a young: gentleman residing at East Boston, who I have understood was 
formerly an assistant in the Asylum for the Blind, called on me and said 
there would be a vacancy in the School Committee from East Boston, 
and he would like the office ; that Dr. Howe had called on him, and 
said he thought he would be a good man for the office, and he had bet- 
ter attend to it, &c. I replied that I had heard nothing: about it, and 
inquired if Mr. Morgan had declined being a<jain a candidate. He said 
he did not know that he had exactly declined, but he would be elected 
Representative, and could not expect to hold both offices. I told him 
that after we got through the Presidential and State elections, there 
would be time enough to think of the municipal. Subsequently, on the 
day the Whigs in ward 4 were notified to meet to nominate ward offi- 
cers, I met another gentleman residing in the ward, and he asked whom 
we intended to nominate for the School Committee from East Boston. 
I mentioned the name that had been agreed upon, and he immediately 

told me he had heard a Mr. (the same who first called on me) 

named as a very suitable person for the office. I said that I understood 
Dr. Howe had nominated that gentleman, but as Dr. H. resided in ward 
12, we rather preferred selecting a candidate for ourselves. At the 
meeting in the evening, when in conversation with gentlemen there, I 
mentioned whom the citizens of East Boston wanted to nominate, and in 



13 

How far this "Mutual Assurance Society," carried their 
reciprocal favors, the public will never know. By hook 
or by crook, some few whose sympathies were known 
to have attached them to the honorable Secretary in his 
conflict with the masters, became members of the School 
Committee, for 1845. To what degree the sudden zeal of 
these gentlemen in the cause of public instruction had 
been influenced by the " School controversy," and whether 
their entrance upon the Committee was attended with any 
design to visit avenging retribution on the refractory sub- 
jects of a would-be educational despot, are questions on 
which observers will judge for themselves, enlightened by 
the history of subsequent proceedings. 

The effort to revolutionize the School Committee had 
failed. A minority inclined to new measures, found itself un- 
able to proceed directly to the punitive action, which would 
probably, have supervened a more favorable return from the 
ballot box. If any thing were to be accomplished, good policy 
required that the few should keep still, until the circum- 
stances under which they were elected should fail to ex- 
cite suspicion of their movements. Stratagem often sup- 
plies the lack of force. Nothing peculiar developed itself 
for months, in the transactions of the Committee. The 
old regime seemed unshaken in the steadiness of its estab- 



two instances, at least, the reply was, " We have heard Mr. 

(the person who first called on me) spoken of as a very good man for 
the office." I replied as I had previously, that he had been nominated 
by Dr. Howe, but we preferred the other gentleman. At the marking, 

however, I think the name of Mr. was not mentioned, but 

Charles Sumner, Esq., understood to be another friend of Dr. Howe, 
received the nomination. Though the meeting was unusually large, 
but little interest appeared to be felt in the nomination of candidates to 
any of the offices except that, of School Committee ; after that was 
made, a large portion of the persons present left the room. 

After the meeting, some of the citizens of East Boston, connected 
with all the different political parties, consulted together, and agreed to 
run a candidate in opposition to Mr. Sumner, for two reasons : — 1st. 
To maintain a right always conceded to East Boston, of having a rep- 
resentative in the School Committee ; and 2d. To resist a supposed 
interference on the part of Dr. Howe. A candidate was agreed upoD 
and elected. 



14 

lished practice, until a pioneer balloon was let off in the 
shape of an order requiring the public schoolmasters to 
keep a record of the corporal punishments inflicted in 
their schools. This was designed at once to try the way 
of the wind, and to enlist common favor. Most parents 
are so fondly weak, as to desire exemption from punish- 
ment for their children, at whatever sacrifice to their 
characters. This popular measure obtained the sanction 
of a majority of the School Committee, and became a Law. 
With all due deference to the wisdom of those gentlemen, 
I cannot but regard the requisition as one greatly to be 
regretted. It is a virtual endorsement of their system of 
social, civil, and religious licentiousness, who calling them- 
selves "come-outers,"(aname which promises whatall good 
men wish them to be,) are now endeavoring to subvert all 
authorities and powers, on the vain hope that bad men, 
and undisciplined children can be guided by moral sua- 
sion. It is affixing a stigma to one of the acknowledged, nec- 
essary appliances of School keeping, which may hinder its 
administration, when it ought to be employed, — and abate 
from its wholesome influence, when its use cannot be 
avoided. Has it been any where proved by experiment, 
that a School of four or five hundred boys, gathered from 
all classes in society, and accustomed to every variety of 
management at home, can be governed without some 
mode of corporal punishment? And, if it be not yet de- 
monstrated that corporal inflictions are not necessary 
means of authority over children as they are over men, 
why cast odium upon their use, more than upon any, and 
every other instrumentality, essential to the conduct of a 
School? Why not with equal propriety demand a record 
of every frown, every rebuking word, every punitive de- 
tention, every subtraction from the credit marks, which a 
master visits on a refractory or deficient pupil 1 Each 
master is now made afraid lest his record should bear evi- 
dence that punishment has been dealt in his school a little 



15 

more frequently, than in those of his brethren, and that he 
shall thereby acquire the reputation of a peculiarly severe 
and cruel man — and so, despite his conviction in one, and 
another instance, that the good of an offending child, and 
the maintenance of proper order in his school demand the 
use of the rod, he abstains from the fulfillment of conscious 
duty. Each becomes emulous, not to secure the best dis- 
cipline by all legitimate means, but to have gotten along 
in freedom from absolute anarchy, with the least resort to 
corporal punishment. Children too, get knowledge that the 
rod is a proscribed instrument, and the bad will naturally 
make experiment of how much a master will endure from 
them in the way of refractory conduct, before he will by 
resort to punishment incur the necessity of making a mark 
against himself. 

As a further proof that the whole movement which we 
have thus far traced, was concocted by Mr. Mann, and 
pursued by those who were wedded to him and his plan 
of hostility to the " unlucky thirty-one," observe his 
boast of having been instrumental in the adoption of 
this measure, published in his " Answer" to the " Re- 
joinder" of the masters. " I hope, however, and believe, 
that I shall hereafter find a compensation for all its priva- 
tions and anxieties in that reform of the Boston Grammar, 
and Writing schools which the controversy has already 
been the occasion of commencing, and which wise and 
good men are now taking up, and re ill carry forward to a 
glorious consummation." See in the words which we 
have emphasized, with what retrospective satisfaction, he 
looks upon this rule concerning corporal punishment, as 
the offspring of his own influence ; (for this was the only 
advance which folly had then made,) — and see too what a 
light that triumph flings upon his anticipations for the 
future. This "Answer," more virulent if possible, in its 
spirit, than his former "Reply," was published, as that 
had been, at a juncture in which it might be expected to 



16 

exert an immediate influence, which they, against whom 
it was leveled, could not have time to parry. It was con- 
temporaneous with the annual examinations of the Public 
Schools, and just before the annual election of Masters ; 
designed (if this circumstance gives any clue to motives,) 
at once to cheer on the examining committees in their cru- 
sade against the reputation of the Schools, and to create at 
the punctum instans of election, an outcry against the 
" unlucky thirty-one." 

The time at length arrived for the annual examination 
of the Schools. When it was conducted orally — the usual 
way, some Schools, which theoretically judged, should 
have been very bad, proved to be practically among the 
best in the city, — that is, some, whose masters had differed 
" toto coelo " from Mr. Mann, his friends on the Committee 
were constrained to report in the first rank, and, in con- 
formity to advice, which one of them confessed that he 
had received, to " give the devil his due !" This result 
was brought out by the use of the common means. The 
text-books were made the basis of the examinations, the 
questions and answers were orally delivered, nothing was 
done to amaze or affright the children; and, as in previous 
years, — the Schools as a whole, made a good appearance. 

The long deferred movement that was designed to ac- 
complish the end for which effort had been made in vain 
to change the whole composition of the Board, was 
brought forward adroitly at the time for the annual exami- 
nation of the Schools. Certain individuals procured nom- 
ination on the examining Committee. All men acquainted 
with the forms of proceeding in deliberative bodies, know 
how this is done. Individual members who wish to have 
the management of any item of business, bring it forward 
to notice, and make themselves conspicuous, in urging its 
importance, and suggesting how it should be done, and 
the Chairman, by a law of courtesy, not often transgressed, 
nominates them to the work about which they have shown 



17 

so much interest. And so it came to pass that Theophilus 
Parsons, and S. G. Howe, became the preponderating 
part of the Grammar School Committee, and William 
Brigham, and J. I. T. Coolidge of the Writing School 
Committee. I do not know that, as is frequently done, 
suggestive lists were not handed to the Chairman ; but 
this I know, that if Thomas A. Davis, the late lamented 
Mayor, in the honest simplicity of his heart, and with- 
out leading influences of some sort, fell upon such a 
nomination, it was the most singular fortuity that ever 
occurred. The Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of 
Education would have made precisely the same.* 
It will be seen in the course of this review that the 
remaining ingredient of the Grammar School Committee 
at least, was selected with happy reference to its facility 
of assimilation. Thus constituted the examining Com- 
mittees as avengers of Mr. Mann, had but to concert 
politic measures in order to bring the Schools, and of 
course their masters in a very unenviable light before the 
public. Nothing is easier, if a man be so disposed, than 
to embarrass, and stultify the best Schools in the land, 
while yet the examiner confines himself to the sciences in 
which they have been taught. With my small resources, 
I could go into the Normal School, at West Newton, (Mr. 
Mann's own particular pet.) and make Master Pierce hang 
his head at the seeming ignorance which I could make his 

* It has, since the writing; of this part of the review, come to the 
knowledge of the writer, that the whole list was handed to the Mayor 
for his nomination, by an ex-officio member of the School Committee, 
who in other movements acted with the representatives of Mr. Mann. 
The same gentleman gave notice at the lime of the nomination of these 
Committees (in May, and they did not make their Reports until Au- 
gust,) that he should move for the printing of ten thousand copies of 
their reports. One would think that the tenor of them was pretty con- 
fidently anticipated so long before the examinations were had, on which 
they should be predicated. This is a very curious item in their ante- 
natal history. 

2* 



18 

scholars develope. Any mode of expression to which a 
School is unaccustomed, adopted even undesignedly by an 
official visitor, is often enough to confuse the brain, and 
seal the lips of the most advanced pupil in it. The object 
of an examining Committee should be to elicit all that the 
scholars know, and not to approach them in a way to shut 
up all their actual acquirements, and expose all their 
ignorance. If judicious, and above sinister purpose, they 
will aim first to impress a School and its Teacher with 
the conviction that they visit it as friends, — they will seek 
to remove all cause of embarrassment, by accommodating 
their course of procedure to that which obtains in the 
daily recitations. What a contradiction, then, was it, for 
this notable Committee to pretend a desire to discover the 
actual state of the Schools; while, at the same time they 
came with a sort of necromantic mystery, and by the very 
protocol of their plan of operation, spread amazement and 
alarm through every School. They came wishing " to as- 
certain with certainty, what the Scholars did not know." 
They gave written questions, and required written an- 
swers. Was there no simpler way of unfolding the true 
state of the Schools? — Has no previous examining Com- 
mittee ever known whereof they affirmed'? — Has the con- 
dition of the Schools been a profound secret, until the 
invention of written questions unlocked the whole? — If 
this was the true method for disclosing the truth, why did 
not these philanthropic discoverers ply their peculiar art 
at an earlier period in the incumbency of their office? — 
They were sub-committee men in charge of particular 
Schools ; was it good faith in them to keep the key of 
knowledge in reserve through six or eight months of their 
service? — They should have illustrated in their own prac- 
tice the preeminent faithfulness of this written mode of 
examination at the first prosecution of their duty as ex- 
aminers, that so their associates might have had the bene- 
fit of their skill at an earlier date. But no, — a gradual 



19 

adaptation of the schools to this mode, would have ren- 
dered it no better than another. To iis perfect efficacy, it 
was essential that the trap should be sprung in every 
school at the same time. Surprise was one of the prime 
elements of its excellency. There could be no discovery 
of the true state of the schools, unless inquiry burst upon 
them in some sudden and frightful shape. Read the ac- 
count which the Committee for the Grammar department 
give of their plan of proceedings. 

" In order to prevent the children of one School from having an advan- 
tage over those of another by ascertaining what the questions were to 
be, they were privately prepared and printed ; then, without any previ- 
ous notice, each member of the Committee commenced at eight o'clock 
in ihe morning with one school, and spread befoie the first division of 
the first class the printed questions in geography. The maps and books 
were put out of the way ; the scholars were placed at a distance from 
each other, so as to prevent communication by whispers; they were t Id 
that they would have, one hour to answer the questions, and that they 
should not lose time in trying to write handsomely, as the chirography 
would not be taken into account. Then they were set to work. 

At the end of the hour, the Committee man gathered up his papers, 
and went as quickly as possible to the next school, remained there an 
hour, and then proceeded to a third. After the noon intermission, the 
Committee commenced again, and visited three more schools ; thus each 
Committee-man finished tho examination in geography of six schools, 
and the three finished all the schools in the City. The next day we 
took the questions on another subject, and thus finished the whole." 

And this is the mode in which they exercised their 
wish to " have as fair an examination as possible !" 
Which will yoii impugn, gentle reader, the common sense, 
or the sincerity of men who project such a scheme, avow- 
ing such a design ? At a given moment three Committee- 
men flash into as many different schools, without previous 
notice, unfold their " privately prepared and printed ques- 
tions," banish all books, segregate the scholars, point 
them to the clock, announce the limit of their time, and 
bid them write for their lives ! There are not many 
grown people who have sufficient self-possession to report 
with accuracy what they know, on any given subject, 
if put to the work under such circumstances. And to such 
an ordeal, timid children are subjected, by men appointed 



20 

to supervise their instruction, and to cheer them in their 
successes; — nor only so; the errors of every sort which 
confusion and fright cause them to commit, are "set in a 
note book," carefully enumerated, and published to the 
world ! Oh ! the very scheme was an outrage upon the 
defenceless innocence, and sensitive feelings of childhood. 
That this is not the prejudiced opinion of an individual, I 
will proceed to demonstrate. One of the Committee for 
examining the Grammar schools, the Rev. R. H. Neale, 
was delegated to visit schools of the same class in several 
other cities, for the purpose of trying their rank and com- 
parative proficiency, by the same test. He carried copies 
of the " privately prepared and printed questions," (which, 
by the way, were so clandestinely digested that the same 
Rev. Gentleman declared in the hearing of two persons, 
that he did ' not know who made the questions, nor why 
so unusual a method was pursued') he carried these with 
him, on his tour, and proposed to submit them to schools 
in New York, Hartford, and New Haven. " In New 
York," I use his own words, so far as the language of 
conversation can be remembered — " they wouldn't let me 
propose the printed questions ; said they never heard of 
such a thing ; their children could not answer them, and 
they wouldn't allow them to try. The same was said at 
Hartford and New Haven." Mr. Lovell, teacher of a cel- 
ebrated school at New Haven, " thought it a most ridicu- 
lous way to examine children, and at first refused to let 
me put the questions." This was the judgment of Teach- 
ers abroad, who have nothing at stake, in this matter, to 
warp their opinions. 

The children of the Lyman school at East Boston testi- 
fied in public meeting, that "after Dr. Howe left, they 
gathered together, and concluded that Dr. Howe wanted 
to put the school down. Several of the parents stated that 
their children came home much excited after the exami- 
nation, saying that Dr. Howe had not given them a fair 



21 

chance; that he had not examined them fairly, had tried 
to make them appear badly, wanted to put the school 
down, &c." This was the impression produced by this 
mode of examination upon the minds of the children. 

What did the Committee themselves think of it? " Do 
you think," said a gentleman to the Rev. Mr. Neale, 
" that this method was pursued, to break down the 
schools?" His reply was, emphatically, " 1 am afraid so/" 

This mode of examination, — pronounced unfair, and of 
suspicious character, by teachers abroad, by pupils at 
home, and by one of the Committee who pursued it, — 
should at least have been plied with all gentleness, and 
with careful uniformity of practice, by every member of 
the Committee. But Dr. Howe, we learn, in one school 
" accused the children of talking when they were not 
talking, was constantly watching them, and shaking his 
pencil at them." He exacted correct spelling, proper 
punctuation, and a right use of capital letters in the writ- 
ten answers ; while the Rev. Mr. Neale, in several of the 
schools, bade the examined write as fast as they could, 
and give no special attention to spelling, chirography, or 
punctuation, nor return to correct their mistakes in these 
particulars. Yet the manuscripts prepared under this 
direction were gathered up, and the number of errors 
detected in them counted, and added to the great aggre- 
gate of blunders committed by the first classes in the 
Boston schools. This reverend gentleman, being one of 
the trio who popped simultaneously into as many differ- 
ent schools, and so pursued the work through the city, 
must have thrown one-third of the schools off their guard, 
by failing to insist on all possible correctness, in matters 
which were afterward to be brought into the account. 
Are these facts illustrative of the concurrent desire of the 
Grammar School Committee " to have as fair an exami- 
nation as possible ; to give the same advantages to all?" 
And is it to be inferred that the young are as ignorant of 



22 

punctuation, and the proper distribution of capitals, as 
their early exercises in writing their own thoughts would 
seem to indicate? Is punctuation so completely system- 
atized, that scholars are all agreed as to where, what, and 
how many points should be used in every conceivable 
sentence? I would not presume to specify, nor would I 
receive from this or any other Committee a declaration of 
the number of commas omitted in "thirty-one thousand, 
one hundred and fifty-nine" answers. Nor can I altogether 
confide in their report of errors in spelling, when I know 
that the severest of them all, applying his own knowledge 
to a certain sheet conspicuous in banking-houses, thought 
he had discovered the error of some Boston school-boy, 
because there was not an "o" in the last syllable of what 
proved to be, in more than one sense, " a counterfeit de- 
tect-e-r." As the questions were so " privately prepared" 
that the Rev. Mr. Neale did not know who made them, it 
is not perhaps uncharitable to suspect, in consideration of 
the fact just mentioned, that some of the " typographical 
errors of spelling, punctuation, and grammar, which were 
discovered too late for correction, and which in many 
schools the scholars were directed to correct as a part of 
their exercise," were copied into the typography from the 
manuscript. 

Let us now, — having referred to the impolicy and injus- 
tice of a test examination conducted, for the first time, by 
written questions and answers, — and having shown that 
this intrinsically objectionable mode was pursued in an 
unequal, and, in some cases, harsh manner, — let us now 
examine the questions themselves, and discover, if we 
can, whether more of them were designed to elicit " what 
the scholars did not know" — or " what they did know." 

"One of the papers prepared," says the Grammar 
School Report, " was a list of words to be defined, all of 
them taken from the reading book used in the class ; 
another was a set of questions upon Geography ; another 



23 

upon Grammar; one upon Civil History; one upon Nat- 
ural Philosophy ; one upon Astronomy ; one upon Whate- 
ly's Rhetoric, and one upon Smellie's Philosophy." The 
last two are permitted, but not required studies. " All of 
the schools were examined in Geography, English Gram- 
mar, and Definitions." More or less of the whole number 
declined to be questioned on Astronomy, Natural Philoso- 
phy, and History. Let us here pause to remark on the 
folly of making these scholastic sciences the prominent 
subjects of examination in this grade of schools. In the 
City of Boston, all our readers know, there are three 
grades of public schools — the Primary, where young 
children are taught the first elements of reading, spell- 
ing, arithmetic, and geography — the Grammar, designed 
to complete instruction in the substantial branches of a 
common English education — and the Latin and English 
High schools, open to, and established for such as wish to 
be fitted for the University, or to attain the more advanced 
parts of a finished English course. Through the two lower 
grades the great mass of the youthful population of the City 
pass. We venture nothing in asserting, that a large ma- 
jority of those who send their sons and daughters to the 
Grammar schools cannot afford to have them remain 
longer in them than is necessary to acquire a plain, prac- 
tical education. Consequently we find, that although the 
Committees, at their annual examinations, make the pro- 
ficiency of the schools in Astronomy and other advanced 
studies, the measure of their excellence, — and thus create 
all possible inducement for the masters to urge their pupils 
into these studies, — that out of the seven thousand, Jive 
hundred and twenty-six children present in the schools on 
the days of the late annual examination, only two hundred 
and seventy-nine were examined in Philosophy, and one 
hundred and four in Astronomy ; a little more than an 
average of fourteen in Philosophy, and five in Astronomy, 
to each of the nineteen Grammar schools, while there is an 



24 

average of three hundred and ninety-six scholars in at- 
tendance on each. This does not result from the back- 
wardness of the masters to teach in those branches. It 
would require no more knowledge, and little more labor, 
to teach fifty children than five. It results from the ina- 
bility of those who depend on the public schools for the 
education of their children, to afford them time for the pur- 
suit of these sciences. Multitudes of children are con- 
strained to leave the schools before they ever reach the 
first division of the first class, and to address themselves 
to the industrial pursuits of life. And yet, by the allow- 
ance and special encouragement of these studies, the 
masters are almost constrained to devote much of their 
time to the instruction of the five or fourteen, as the case 
may be, in the upper forms, while the hundreds below are 
suffering for their attention. These are common schools 
with a witness ! Yet this Committee for 1845 complain 
that the instruction in these polite sciences is "too techni- 
cal," too much in " the words of the text-books" — too 
much "by rote." What would they have? While hun- 
dreds of children are in waiting to be taught how they 
shall read and spell, shall the masters be expatiating for 
the benefit of a few, on the boundless theme of Universal 
History, or flitting from star to star, on wings of As- 
tronomic research? Oral instruction, diversified with 
illustration, visible and descriptive, in Natural Philoso- 
phy, Astronomy and History, cannot be given without an 
immense expenditure of time, nor useful but to a very 
small portion of a Public Grammar school. And is this the 
purpose for which the large expenditures, so often adverted 
to in these reports, are made by the people, — that the mas- 
ters may accomplish the few in that which is refined, to 
the neglect of the many in that which is indispensable? 
If it can be made to appear, from the showing of this (may I 
not say) packed and hostile Committee, that in branches of 
more universal interest, and which all pupils are concerned 



25 

to acquire, the schools have been thoroughly taught, the 
community will rather have occasion to applaud than to 
rebuke the masters, for the alledged deficiencies of the first- 
lings of their flocks in ornamental branches. It will sug- 
gest to the mind of the unprejudiced, that notwithstanding 
the bounty which these visionaries have affixed to ac- 
quirements in polite literature and liberal arts, the masters 
have hazarded the loss of their favor, for the sake of main- 
taining their fidelity to the young. 

Let us first observe what this Committee say of the exam- 
ination in Geography. " They could bound states and 
countries, name capitals, capes, and mountains; enumerate 
rivers, lakes, and bays ; and answer a series of questions put 
by the master, of half an hour's duration : but questioned as 
to the drainage of countries, their capacities for commerce, 
the causes which direct streams, and determine the force 
of water — their want of comprehension of these, and simi- 
lar subjects, showed plainly in almost every school, that 
they had learned geography as if it were only a catalogue 
of names," &c. And again : " Some of our scholars could 
commence with Maine, and name every river running into 
the ocean, without missing a navigable stream." We 
did not know before that Maine is a river running into the 
ocean. If the pupils in the Grammar schools of Bos- 
ton can do what is here asserted, they cannot be matched 
by those of any other school in the world. But, perhaps, 
the Committee meant that some of the scholars could 
commence with [the rivers of] Maine, and name every 
river [in the United States] which runs into the ocean. 
Men who are hypercritical in noting the errors of boys, 
should express their own thoughts with decent exactness. 
But whatever construction they may have intended that 
readers should affix to this enigmatical sentence, I submit 
whether, in what I have quoted, there be not evidence 
that instruction in geography at the public schools of 
Boston is reasonably thorough ; questions in the common 
3 



26 

routine of geography — having reference to those items of 
knowledge which universal consent has pronounced most 
important to be known — children could answer with 
readiness ; but strange subjects of inquiry, or those of 
seeming simplicity presented in strange language, and 
under confounding circumstances, afforded the Committee 
means to ascertain — their great desideratum — "what the 
children did not know." Of the former class are these : 
" What is the cause of the rivers in these four States 
[North and South Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee,] 
running in opposite directions?" and, "What do you 
understand by the line of perpetual snow?" Now who 
does not perceive that there are several ways of replying 
to the first of these queries, each of which would be cor- 
rect? I suppose this Committee wished the children to 
reply, " Because a range of mountains intervenes their 
sources." But who could gainsay the truth or propriety 
of one's answer, who should have written, "Because the 
rivers of the two former States seek an outlet in the 
Atlantic ocean, while those of the two latter are tributa- 
ries of the Mississippi." Nay, since they have not defined 
in their question whether they seek the moral or the nat- 
ural "cause," I contend that there was a pious simplicity, 
as well as correctness, in the answer of that child who 
wrote, " Because it was the will of God," which should 
have protected her from the sneer of the Committee. Of 
the latter class, namely, questions of seeming simplicity, 
couched in strange language, observe this : "Write down 
the boundaries of Lake Erie." Now it was not the recon- 
dite nature of this question, but its peculiar phraseology, 
which rendered it perplexing to so many. They could 
have told — I will answer for it — what country is contigu- 
ous to Lake Erie on the north, south, east or west; but to 
bound a lake was, as the Committee very well knew, a 
process entirely novel : and who, but they, ever required 
it to be done? And again : "On which bank of the Ohio 



27 

is Cincinnati, on the right or left?" That, of course, 
must depend on the supposed stand of the respondent. If 
descending the river, Cincinnati is on the one hand : if 
ascending, on the other. True, in some text-books of 
geography, a definition is given which would afford the 
thoughtful learner a clue to the proper meaning of their 
question ; but whether it were the intended meaning of 
men who abjure so roundly what is " technical," may 
admit a doubt. However this may have been, it would, 
be idle to cast a suspicion upon the knowledge of every 
member of every first class in every Grammar school in 
Boston, ("saving always," as the Committee say, "the 
Smith school,") that the State of Ohio is on the north side 
of the Ohio river, and that Cincinnati is one of her cities. 
The failure of any to reply aright to this question, resulted 
from its ambiguous terms. The reader may infer from 
the character of these questions, the method whereby this 
Committee, notwithstanding the favorable general report 
with which we commenced this notice of the examina- 
tions in geography, succeeded in faulting about two-thirds 
of all the answers. "Climatology," "Hydrography," 
and " the spheroidity of the earth," were found to be, 
under such imposing names, too occult for many of the 
children. 

But we must hasten to remark upon the examinations 
in Grammar. This is their general certificate respecting 
that branch. " The Boston schools we think would be 
rated very high in comparison with the best schools in the 
world on the subject of technical parsing. It would seem 
impossible for a scholar to take up a stanza of Childe 
Harold, and parse the words correctly; to perceive, that 
is, the connection and relations of the words, and yet fail 
to feel the force of the metaphors, or to understand the 
sense of the whole stanza; nevertheless, this is done some- 
times. Such is the power of drilling. Such is the effect 
of close attention to the mere osteology of language." I 



28 

esteem this high praise; so high that a great deal of nib- 
bling criticism upon the recitations of scholars who de- 
served it, cannot work any sensible reduction. The 
Committee have put an ill aspect upon the tabular report 
of the examinations in Grammar, principally by plying 
their victims with such questions as these. " The differ- 
ence between ordinal and numeral adjectives?" and "What 
is an allegory?" — Now, I confront this Committee with the 
assertion that there is not a difference between a numeral 
and an ordinal adjective. The very question assumes an 
untruth. An ordinal adjective is a numeral, — it is an 
integral part of its entity. If they can mark a difference 
between a numeral and an ordinal, — they can with equal 
ease, note one between a numeral and a cardinal, and 
when both cardinal and ordinal adjectives are shown to 
differ from numeral, it would require something more than 
the osteology of language, to describe the residuum. 
An allegory ? — Does it pertain to the science of Grammar, 
to define an allegory ? — I have before me Murray's large 
English Grammar; in the body of the work I find no defi- 
nition of the figures of speech. But in an "Appendix, 
containing Rules and Observations, for assisting young 
persons to write with perspicuity and accuracy ; to be 
studied after they have acquired a competent knowledge of 
English Grammar," is an explanation of the word " alle- 
gory.^ Rhetoric used to be a name for that science, 
which defines and teaches how to apply the ornaments of 
speech. But, perhaps, that is now obsolete. Surely one 
would think so, when a School Committee writing on the 
subject of Grammar, commit such violations of old rules 
as occur in the following passages. "It" [Grammar,] 
includes a knowledge of the formation of words from their 
elementary parts, — the mode in which one word is derived 
from another, as well as a clear and distinct idea of each 
and every word, according to the usage of the best authori- 
ties. It embraces also a knowledge of the classification, 



29 

arrangement, agreement, government, and mutual depend- 
ence of words when joined in construction. To attain this 
object, the pupils must be able not only to give the true 
relation of each word in a sentence, but must be able to 
supply ellipses, &c." I will not pause to complain of the 
gross redundancy of language in these sentences, and the 
consequent obscurity of their style. But just look at the 
words which I have italicised. "Knowledge" is a personal 
attribute, the apprehension which the human mind has of 
truth ; it cannot be predicated of an abstract science. It 
is bad rhetoric to say, " Grammar includes a knowledge," 
it does not, it imparts it. So is an "idea," an image 
conceived in the mind; it cannot be said to inhere in the 
science of Grammar. But "the osteology" of the passage 
under review, is a little disjointed. Will the gentle reader 
do me and the Committee the favor to find to what attain- 
ment, described in the antecedent sentence, the Committee 
refer when they proceed to tell how " 10 attain this object." 

" Technical parsing," on which the Committee believe 
that the Boston schools would compare very favorably 
with the best in the world, demands, if we understand the 
term, a thorough knowledge of the parts of speech; of 
the relations which they may severally bear one to an- 
other; of the proper components of a correct sentence; and 
an ability to unravel every species of involution, and to 
bring words and members into their natural order. With 
all due deference to the wiser judgment of these gentle- 
men, I consider a child who can do all this, a proficient in 
Grammar, though he be not able to define an allegory, or 
to tell wherein things differ which are identical. Gram- 
mar unfolds the mechanism of language, Rhetoric devel- 
opes its graces. 

But the most curious paper, " privately prepared and 
printed," was, "a list of words to be defined." The 
lexicographer who prepared this vocabulary, will find it 
for his reputation to keep the secret of his authorship to the 



30 

day of his death. Examine the list, ye who have received 
but a good English education, suppose yourselves seated 
before a blank sheet of paper, beyond reach of a dic- 
tionary, under the eye of a waiting Committee, and 
required to expound each of the twenty-eight words in 
two minutes; how many could you define 1 This is the 
list. " Monotony, Convocation, Bifurcation, Panegyric, 
Vicegerent, Esplanade, Preternatural, Forum, Importu- 
nate, Evanescence, Infatuated, Kirk, Connoisseur, Dor- 
mant, Aerial, Sphinx, Rosemary, Thanatopsis, Monody, 
Anthology, Pother, Misnomer, Zoonomia, Hallucination, 
Machiavelli, Madrigals, Hades." Be aware, that it is a 
very different thing to apprehend the meaning of a word, 
when seen in its connection, from defining it with pre- 
cision when presented alone. Remember that though the 
Committee selected this list from the reading-book used in 
the Boston schools, — the children were not permitted to 
refer to the places in which these words occur, to refresh 
their apprehension of the meaning of them. They received 
them as they are given here — stripped of all association 
which might help remembrance of their use. I mean no 
disparagement to the Boston School Committee, when I 
say that they cannot define a list of words, corresponding 
in difficulty with that before us, so as to afford a greater 
number of correct interpretations than were given by the 
scholars, on the list submitted to them. There might be 
more discretion to deter them from attempting an answer, 
when they were consciously ignorant ; but a larger 
proportion of intelligent, and approximate definitions could 
not be expected from a promiscuous Committee of twenty 
well educated men? lam surprised that these gentlemen 
should have attempted to cast reproach upon the mass of 
definitions which they have reported. After spreading 
such a complicated net, they must have been disappointed 
that so many escaped without being trapped. The words 
were selected from " the reading-book used in the class." 



31 

What then ? Is it snpposable (hat they read it through 
with sufficient frequency to gain, by repeated explanations, 
precise knowledge of the meaning of all the outlandish 
words which it contains? The book has two hundred and 
nine lessons, on four hundred and eighty closely printed 
pages. However faithful teachers may be in requiring, 
and when necessary, supplying definitions, no man who 
has the least practical knowledge of school-keeping, will 
expect to find all transcribed on the child's memory, 
and ready to be produced, under circumstances never so 
untoward. I say " outlandish words." There is but one 
in the whole list of Saxon derivation, and that is in use 
only where the Scotch dialect prevails. All the rest are of 
Greek, Latin, Italian or French origin ; some from the latter 
language scarcely yet adopted into our tongue. " Than- 
atopsis," from the Greek, is not so common, and yet not 
so obscure as another more at hand from the same dead 
language. Why did they not pose the whole circuit by 
tasking them with " Theophilus ?" The children would 
have found in it a hidden sense immensely difficult to 
define. Is any man so simple as to believe, that this 
selection of foreign and classical words was unintentional? 
Every scholar knows that derivative words cannot be de- 
fined with precision by those who have not studied the 
languages from which they spring. The bastard-English 
words therefore, which with singularly successful search 
this Committee have collected for definition, was well 
adapted to ascertain from children who had visited no 
college but the Grammar school, " what they did not 
know! : ' No scholastic exercise is more difficult than to 
write definitions. To have well defined a much sim- 
pler class of words, would have entitled the exam- 
ined to high commendation. The Committee forefcnded 
the necessity of rendering it, by setting forth a list, 
which they themselves could not have translated 
throughout, without the aid of a dictionary. There are 



32 

very few scholars in the high places of literature, who, 
" without previous notice," could sit down, and write out 
the signification of each and every word in this notable 
list. The reader will find, therefore, no cause for mortifi- 
cation, in the report of this Committee, that of the Boston 
public schools, composed mostly of children, whose literary 
opportunities in the social circle, are but ordinary, " the 
Eliot school (the highest,) gives fifty-five per cent of cor- 
rect answers; " — that is, in one school more than half of 
all the definitions rendered, are pronounced correct by the 
Board of Censors : and if they approve, surely none would 
condemn. 

But, we have yet another branch in which all the schools 
were examined, on which to elicit the reluctant praise 
of the Committee. " Of all the branches taught in our 
schools," say they, "reading seems to receive the greatest 
attention on the part of the masters. The attainments of 
the pupils in this branch are incomparably higher than in 
any other. Your Committee apprehend indeed, that in 
some schools too high value is attached to it, and that 
time and labor are spent upon it to the neglect of other 
studies." Alas, for the " unlucky thirty-one ;" — how can 
they please a Committee that find fault alike with the 
excellencies, as with the imperfections of their schools? — 
The art of reading receives ' : the greatest attention, on the 
part of the masters !" Are they to be blamed for this? 
Is it monstrous to make good reading the prominent 
feature in a common English education ? What is the 
key of knowledge, to an American youth, if it be not skill 
to read with facility and correctness the books and papers 
which are scattered broad-cast over the land ? What other 
item of school instruction gives access to so much that is 
valuable, and interesting? All seminaries of learning, 
from the infant school to the University, do but furnish 
the germs of education. They teach men how to learn 
and supply them with the instruments. That is the most 
useful branch of school learning, which opens to youth 



33 



the widest field of acquirement, and qualifies them to reap 
it. In this view, what but the place of preeminence shall 
we give to the art of reading? In some Boston schools the 
Committee apprehend it is over valued, and time and 
labor are spent upon it, to the neglect of other studies. 
Pray, what other studies? Not Geography; for "they 
could bound states and countries, name capitals, capes, 
and mountains ; enumerate rivers, lakes, and bays ; and 
answer a series of questions put by the master of half an 
hour's duration ;" "yea, name every river running into the 
ocean, without missing a navigable stream." Not Gram- 
mar, for "the Boston schools, we (the Committee,) think 
would be rated very high in comparison with the best 
schools in the world, on the subject of technical parsing." 
By " the power of drilling, and close attention to the mere 
osteology of language, they have accomplished that 
which it would seem impossible for a scholar to do." 
However unsatisfactory, the amount and kind of knowl- 
edge which the schools have acquired in these branches, 
and how important soever, "hydrography," and "clima- 
tology" may be, in comparison with the boundaries of 
states and countries, &c 3 and the definition of "alle- 
gory" in Grammar, compared with " technical parsing," 
yet even these are not taught without time and labor, — 
the studies to which they belong have not been neglected, 
where they are attained. What " other studies then has 
reading superseded )" Why — the permitted studies — 
Whately's Logic, and Smellie's Philosophy of Natural 
History, altogether; and Astronomy, Natural Philosophy, 
and History in part. A branch of education which all 
who attend the public schools are most deeply interested 
to acquire " receives the greatest attention on the part of 
the masters:" — " time and labor are spent upon it, to the 
neglectof" those advanced studies, which only a few desire 
to pursue, and to which they could attend with more pro- 
priety and advantage at the English High School. The 



34 

community will not rebuke the teachers for their partiality 
to the art of reading. The Committee seem to deride the 
satisfaction of the masters in the attainments of their 
pupils in this branch. " Every casual visitor of a school," 
say they, " must hear a reading lesson, * * * every 
Committee must hear the class read." Yes, and it has 
been so for many years; — the Boston teachers have felt 
an honest pride in the success of their efforts to communi- 
cate the art of reading with correctness, and taste. Their 
fame in this behalf has spread far and wide. The reading 
exercise has always lent a peculiar grace to the annual 
exhibitions of the schools. The hard hand of the artisan 
has often dashed a tear from his eye, on these occasions, 
when his daughter's voice, charged with the poetry of some 
master of English verse, has sent a thrill to his heart. 
May it be ever thus, — let no sneer of the captious deter 
the public teachers from their laudable practice of thorough 
instruction in the art of reading. Let no future Com- 
mittee venture on the hazardous experiment of flinging 
ridicule upon their complacency, who by "labor," and 
"time," and "greatest attention," have made their pupils 
creditable evidence of their skill in teaching, at once the 
first element, and the highest ornament of an English 
education. 

Of the questions on History, Astronomy, and Natural 
Philosophy, we have space to say but little. Only seven- 
teen schools were examined in History, four in Astronomy, 
and eleven in Natural Philosophy. We will not make 
each of these branches, a distinct subject of remark, but 
will throw together in one paragraph some incidental 
notices of them all. Among the questions on History, we 
find the following, — " About what period was the embargo 
laid by President Jefferson, and non-intercourse substituted 
for it?" Here the reader may observe two occurrences 
are spoken of, which transpired at a distance of two 
years, the one from the other. — yet only one " period" is 



35 

asked for ! It is in fact two questions clumsily com- 
pounded in one. Perplexed by this ungrammatical medley, 
some replied to one branch of the inquiry, and some to the 
other. No answer was, or could be correct. The impro- 
priety of the question, precluded the possibility of a re- 
sponse, which would be both true to fact, and true to the 
structure of the query. On Astronomy the Committee 
ask, " which circle contains the greater number of degrees, 
the equator, or arctic circle?" — Now to some, an objection 
to this question on the score of the falsehood which it 
assumes, may seem cynical. But who does not know, 
that a truthful, artless girl would be confused, and per- 
haps, misled, by this almost assertion of her superiors, 
that one circle exceeds another in the number of its 
degrees. To impose upon the simple veracity of child- 
hood, is a trick of very questionable propriety. Again, 
"why is it that we see only one side of the moon?" — 
What a variety of answers may be returned with equal 
fitness to this vague problem! Those given by the chil- 
dren were accredited as correct probably, which corres- 
ponded to the Committees' own conception of the import 
of their question. We see only one side of the moon, as 
we see but one side of any opaque body. Light travels in 
straight lines, and that which is reflected from the other 
side of the moon, does not bend its course to visit us. Pat 
killed the quails around a hay-stack, by bending his gun; — 
we shall never be able to see more than one side of the 
moon, until the rays of vision shall receive a similar curva- 
ture. The Committee perhaps meant to ascertain, wheth- 
er the pupil knew, why the moon, whenever visible 
to us, always presents to us the same phase?— In- 
definite questions can call forth none but indefinite 
answers. The more shrewd scholars will always decline 
to reply, when not interrogated in precise terms. In one 
of the four schools examined on Astronomy, the master 
explicitly stated to the Committee, at their coming, that 



36 

the class were not prepared for examination, that they 
were not pursuing that study. "Oh, let them try," said 
Dr. H., " they shall have credit for all their correct 
answers." He did not add, ' and they shall have detrac- 
tion for all their imperfect ones.' The master, flattered by 
the hope of getting credit from one whom he feared was 
not often in a mood to accord it to him, allowed the ex- 
amination to proceed, and, for his pains, finds his school 
blazoned in the sixth table appended to this report, as 
number three of die four examined in Astronomy. Under 
the head of Natural Philosophy, the Committee propose 
such questions as these, " What is the difference between 
Natural History and Natural Philosophy?" — "What is 
the difference between Zoology and Geology?" — Let me 
ask, in return, how can a person state the difference 
between two matters, with only one of which he is conver- 
sant? — One of that Committee is honorably acquainted 
with Greece; can he define the difference between Greece 
and Patagonia ? — A lad comes up to be examined on 
Latin. The professor may be very learned, but very un- 
wise, if he commences by asking him, ' What is the differ- 
ence between Latin and Chinese?' The classes in the 
Boston Grammar schools, presented for examination on 
that science, could probably define Natural Philosophy; 
but they must be also able to define Natural History, 
before they can designate wherein they differ. "Zoology" 
and "Geology" are both foreign to the branch under 
examination. They, in common with Natural Philosophy, 
are comprised in that great vinculum of Natural sciences, 
called Natural History. For what earthly purpose were 
the classes in Natural Philosophy, met in the very outset 
of their examination, with these strange, inapposite, and 
vexatious questions? Can it be, that these were placed in 
fraternity of mischief, at the very head of the list, to con- 
found and dishearten the scholars, in their subsequent at- 
tempts to answer questions more pertinent to the subject ? 



37 

It is not a little amusing that in the Committee's attempt 
to give a tabular view of the comparative standing of all 
the schools, the records of examinations on these two last- 
named branches, Astronomy, and Natural Philosophy, are 
thrown out of the general account, as being only on the 
"allowed studies," whereas they are both in fact, " re- 
quired studies ! " Of course, this egregious blunder vitiates 
the whole account ; for whatever number of correct and 
incorrect answers, eleven schools made on Natural Philos- 
ophy, should have been added to the reckoning in the 
table "of the relative rank of all the schools, in each of 
the required studies. " This would have changed their 
numerical position in the list of schools, and by conse- 
quence have elevated or depressed their rank. The public 
must give what credit they please to the whole calcula- 
tion, when eleven of the nineteen schools are thus proved 
to be out of place ! In further illustration of the wide in- 
accuracies of these Tables, let me mention that in one 
school, where nineteen girls were examined on Philosophy, 
the Fifth Table reports but fourteen, and the whole deci- 
mal calculation for the rank of that school is predicated 
on that false number. How do we know that the 
answers which have gone to the receptacle of things 
lost upon earth, were not those of the five best scholars 
in the class? The Committee remark that they "are 
not aware of any tabularization like this having been, 
attempted." The Community will, doubtless, concur with 
me in the hope that any thing like this may never be 
attempted in future ! This is probably the first attempt to 
coin that interminable word "tabularization;" if found in 
any respectable dictionary, it must be in the " Index 
Vitandarum" 

Reader, we will pursue no further the details of 
this memorable examination of the Grammar schools 
Review the class of questions which have been sub- 
mitted to your notice; consider the novelty of the 
4 



38 

whole mode of procedure, and say whether you do not 
sympathize with the Rev. Mr. Neale, in his fear, that it 
was adopted with a view " to break the schools down:" 
say, whether the children were unreasonable in their com- 
plaints that the Committee " tried to make ihtm appear 
badly : " say, whether the eminent teacher at New Haven 
was not correct, in his opinion that it is a " most ridiculous 
way to examine children ! "* This last reference brings to 
mind another singular fact connected with the history of 
this Report. It will be remembered that the Rev. Mr. 
Neale, one of the Examining Committee, visited New York, 
Hartford, and New Haven, for the purpose of ascertaining 
how the Grammar schools in those cities would compare 
with our own. On what page of the Report shall the 
Citizens of Boston, read the result of his investigations? 
Where shall they find with shame, the black record of the 
inferiority of our schools? Not one word of that interest- 
ing visit has found place in this unique document. Since 
I have betrayed the fact that such a visit was made, I 
must gratify the very natural curiosity of the reader to 
know what discoveries presented themselves to the obser- 
vation of the Rev. R. H. Neale on his tour of scholastic 
inquiry. Meeting one of the Boston Masters in Court 
street, the Rev. Gentleman accosted him as follows : 
"Well Sir, your schools have nothing to fear, for I have 
just returned from a tour to New York, and there is no 
comparison between their schools and ours." "Well, 
that's good," replied the Master. Mr. Neale proceeded, 
"I went into the schools in New York, and Hartford, and 



* It may not be unworthy of remark, that although these same gen- 
tlemen, who esteem written questions and answers so indispensable to 
a fair development of the condition of the schools, were on the Commit- 
tees for examining the Latin and English High Schools, yet those 
institutions were tried by the old methed — oral examination ! Perhaps 
the fact that their masters were not of the " unlucky thirty-one," 
induced a little variation of the needle from the pole star of fixed pro- 
priety. 



39 

New Haven, and the Boston schools are infinitely, infin- 
itely before them all." The introduction of this language, 
or even of less extravagant expressions certifying the ex- 
cellency of our schools, would indeed have been discordant 
with the general tone of the Report. But it was due 
to truth and righteousness, that something of the result of 
that tour of observation should have been given to the 
public. The fact which it brought to the knowledge of 
the Committee, should at least have modified the scope of 
their remark ; — " We cannot but believe, for we see, 
that other schools are better than most of ours ! " It is not 
to be believed that the Rev. delegate of the Committee 
who persecuted our Teachers " even unto strange cities," 
withheld from his associates the bootless issue of his 
errand. His profession, and his personal standing forbid 
the thought that he abstained to deposit his honest tribute 
on the congeries of facts, out of which the Report should 
be made. The non-appearance of what he contributed, 
may find an equivocal apology in his declaration made 
after the Report of the Examining Committee was pre- 
sented to the Board, to one whose written certificate is 
before me, that he " had not read it ! " — though his name is 
subscribed as one of its authors. 

Another curious fact of the same nature with the above- 
mentioned, is entitled to a passing remark. The Committee 
inform the public that they "extended their examination 
to some of the schools in the neighboring towns." But they 
have made report of the comparative proficiency of only 
one from the whole number, namely, " the Dudley school, 
in the town of Roxbury." True, they say they " consider 
that school a fair specimen of the best schools in our 
neighborhood." Probably they use the word '•'■fair'''' in 
the sense of. beautiful, rather than, just : for common ru- 
mor assigns that school a very high rank. How was it 
with the statistics which the Committee gathered in 
the schools of Charlestown, and other towns? Were 
they so " fair" as to cast into the shade the schools of 



40 

Boston? If they had been, though there was no place 
found for the report from New York, a " table " could 
have been provided on which they might be served. But 
when did they extend their examination into the schools of 
the neighborhood ? Before, or during, or after the inqui- 
sition of the city ? They report for themselves, that, upon 
commencing the work in their own sphere, they pursued 
it without intermission until they had completed it. So 
that there is every reason to believe that the neighboring 
towns were visited after the examination of the city 
schools was concluded — for how could they "extend" a 
transaction until its original compass was fulfilled? Now 
these gentlemen thought it very important to examine all 
the city schools on each branch in one day — not to let a 
night intervene — lest "an unfair advantage might be 
obtained, by any knowledge of the nature of the ques- 
tions." But, all the city schools were examined in all 
the studies, through a succession of days, before they ex- 
tended their investigations into the schools of the neigh- 
borhood. What should prevent a knowledge of the nature 
of the questions overstepping the boundary line of an 
adjacent town, whose public school-houses are no more 
remote from some of the city schools, than they are from 
each other? The Committee declare themselves " cer- 
tain'''' that in the Dudley school, "neither master nor 
scholars knew any thing beforehand of their questions." 
Less evidence will at times make men certain of some 
alleged facts, than of others more credible. Are they 
certain that there were not three girls examined at the 
Dudley school, who had completed their course there, and 
departed, yet, by solicitation, returned for that occasion? — 
and is it certain that they, not being members of the 
school, "knew nothing beforehand of the questions?" 
Nothing but a special Providence could have kept strictly 
within the municipal limits, through a whole week, intel- 
ligence which it there baffled every possible human effort 



41 

to hold m check for a single day ! Let me not by the 
most remote implication disparage the Dudley school in 
Roxbnry. I am willing to believe the general voice 
which proclaims it an excellent school. But its reputation 
must rest, and does rest, on something more reliable than 
the testimony of this ' c Report." If it can be magnified 
but by the reduction of sister institutions around it, its 
elevation is only apparent, and its precedence not to be 
coveted. If it must be pittei against the schools of the 
city, let the conflict be equal in all its terms. Let the day 
of its visitation be the same with theirs. Let it be sum- 
moned to trial with the same abruptness, and let the same 
jealousy of its master, and precautions against the dishon- 
esty of its pupils, be manifested by the Committee. When 
all this shall be done, we may approximate to some notion 
of its comparative ability to withstand an effort " to 
break it down" — but, until it shall be dealt with exactly 
as its rivals are, and brought to trial under predetermined 
condemnation, its excellence may be positive, but it can- 
not be superlative. 

We lay aside the Report of the Grammar School Com- 
mittee, that a few moments may be devoted to its trail- 
bearer, the Report of the Committee on the Writing 
Schools. A remarkable unity of design characterizes 
both. Yet, however similar in general conception, minds 
of unequal capacity, and still greater disparity of rhetori- 
cal furniture, committed them respectively to paper. The 
first sentence of the Report on the Grammar schools con- 
tains indeed a palpable inaccuracy, and there are occa- 
sional lapses from correct English throughout the produc- 
tion, — but its style and construction are, on the whole, 
pure and scholar-like. The Report on the Writing schools 
is, iri some parts, truly a rare specimen of composition. It 
seems impossible that one hand can have written such a 
motley production. While much of it is correctly, though 
not vigorously written, certain paragraphs are compact of 
4# 



42 

innumerable blunders. Errors therein are so rife, that 
wrong seems to have been the author's rule; and right, 
the exception. One is reminded of the Duke of Grafton's 
administration, as described by Junius : " It is not that 
you do wrong by design, but that you never do right by 
mistake." Let us take four consecutive sentences out of 
the midst of the Report, [page 166,] and scrutinize their 
construction. " Some may avail themselves of the study 
of Algebra, Geometry and Book-keeping, but they are 
few, and are confined to the most advanced pupils. One 
half of the time is given by all the rest to Writing and 
Arithmetic, and this without any regard to sex, age, or 
acquirements. The girl at seven and sixteen gives the 
same time to these studies. From one half to an hour in 
each day is devoted to writing, so that two hours, or two 
hoars and a half, are set apart for arithmetic during the 
seven or nine years that the pupils may remain in 
school." Let us apply a little "technical parsing" to 
these sentences, and, — overlooking what the writer meant, 
let us translate what he has expressed. " Some may avail 
themselves of the study of Algebra, Grammar and Book- 
keeping, but they (who may do so) are few, and (they) 
are confined (whether by chains or handcuffs we are not 
told) to the most advanced pupils. One half of the time 
(which the reader will please to limit at his discretion) is 
given by all the rest to Writing and Arithmetic, and this 
(they do, reckless children,) without any regard to sex, 
age, or acquirements. The girl at seven and sixteen (the 
name of this backward young woman of twenty-three is 
not reported,) gives the same time to these studies. From 
one half ( — hiatus, gaping for a noun) to an hour in each 
day is devoted to Writing, so that (the acute reader will 
apprehend the sequitur) two hours or two hours and a half 
are set apart for Arithmetic during the seven or nine years 
that the pupils may remain in school." — (Were ever chil- 
dren so restricted? — and how little knowledge of Arithmetic 



43 

could be imparted to even the readiest minds, in less than 
half a day out of the whole period of their school career !) 
Now if this be not a just representation of the grammatical 
structure of these sentences, I will submit to any advanced 
pupil in the Boston schools, which, " on the subject of 
technical parsing, would be rated very high in comparison 
with the best schools in the world." 

But we must refrain from further comment on the slov- 
enly manner of this Report, and proceed to notice its mat- 
ter. The quotations given above are so far intelligible, 
that the reader may gather from them, that the principal 
duty of this Committee was to examine the schools on 
Writing and Arithmetic. They have occupied but short 
space with their account of the examination on Writing. 
They neither condemn nor praise. But, having given a 
schedule of the relative proficiency of the schools in this 
art, they subjoin, " So far as relates to the Writing in the 
schools, the Committee have no suggestions to make." 
The examination on Arithmetic was conducted on this 
wise : 

" The Committee prepared ten questions for solution, on a variety of 
subjects, and caused them to be printed on a single sheet, leaving between 
each [! !] a sufficient blank space to enable the pupils to record the pro- 
cess of solution. The same questions were submitted to all the schools, 
and the pupils were required to lay aside their books and slates, and 
work out the process on the paper itself. One hour and ten minutes were 
allowed them, at the expiration of which, all the papers were returned 
to the Committee, whether the questions were solved or not. It was 
not expected that any considerable number could ivork out all the sums in so 
short a time, but it was thought expedient to propose such questions that 
even those who had made the greatest advancement, might find employ- 
ment during the allotted period." 

I have caused some clauses in this paragraph to be 
printed in italics, to fasten the reader's attention upon 
those items in the plan of proceeding, which, I think, are 
open to grave objection. Ten questions were printed on a 
single sheet of paper, spaces being left between every two, 
in which to record the operation whereby the respective 
answers might be obtained. Now, to say nothing of the 



44 

confusion which children would experience on being re- 
quired to cipher upon "paper instead of slates, think how 
inconvenient to elaborate an involved arithmetical process 
upon a surface which retains, without the possibility of 
erasure, every mark inscribed upon it ! The very fear of 
recording an indelible error, were enough so to distract 
the mind while computing numbers, as to occasion many 
mistakes. The Committee say they left " sufficient blank- 
space for the record of the process of solution." We can 
all estimate the space which would remain unoccupied 
after ten questions, filling an entire page in an octavo 
pamphlet, had been printed upon a letter sheet. It might 
be sufficient to record the process of solution, but not to 
admit also of unsuccessful experiments. None are so adept 
in the use of figures, as never to commit a manual error, 
which requires a repetition of the process. What shall a 
poor child do, who, by a lapsus of this sort, has filled up 
unsuccessfully the space allotted for a certain solution 1 
He has detected his error, — it was merely in the manipu- 
lation of his problem, — the process was right, — he could 
soon rectify his mistake if he had space for his figures, 
but the blank is filled. Shall he sit stationary, or rise and 
ask for more 1 Not a word of inquiry or request may pass 
his lips. An Egyptian task-master renews the old exac- 
tion, "Fulfil your work! " But some apologist may recur 
to the statement of the Committee : " It was not expected 
that any considerable number could work out all the sums 
[problems] in so short a time." That suggests no excuse 
for withholding the necessary conveniences, wherewith to 
work out as many as they were competent to solve. That 
statement is very unfit to be preferred as an apology for 
these restricted utensils, on another account. It is an ex- 
plicit confession that the time (no less than the paper) 
was insufficient for the completion of the task proposed. 
If so short that no considerable number of pupils could be 
expected to solve all the questions, why did they not 



extend the time or reduce the stint ? And if they did not 
expect the children, in any considerable number, to accom- 
plish the whole work, because the demand would be con- 
sciously exorbitant, why do they report that superfluity 
of failures, for which, by their own showing, not the chil- 
dren, but themselves, are responsible 1 

But without further preface, let me proceed to examine 
the " questions," whereby the Committee proposed to test 
the knowledge of Arithmetic acquired in the Boston schools. 
They are the most ingenious portion of the whole Report: — 
one would think they were " privately prepared," by the 
same hand which had shown so much adroitness in con- 
triving puzzles for the Grammar Schools ; and that prac- 
tice had perfected its skill to make things perplexing. I 
would not have my compliment on the ingenuity of these 
problems misunderstood. I do not applaud their singular 
adaptation to elicit either what the children " did or did not 
know ;" — but, — to conceal the meaning of the Committee. 
Witness question, numbered "4 — A stationer sold quills at 
10s 6d per thousand, by which he cleared \ of the price," 
&c. What "price" that at which he bought, or — sold 1 — 
Again, question — "8 — A merchant in New York, where 
interest is 7 percent, gives his note, dated at Boston, where 
the interest is 6 per cent, for $5,000 payable at the Mer- 
chant's Bank, Boston, on demand," &c. For what pur- 
pose was the rate of interest in New York recited in this 
statement? It is entirely foreign to the question. The 
note was given in Boston, and made payable in Boston. 
The fact that the merchant lived in New York, and that 
interest there is 7 per cent, — both irrelevant items, were 
introduced for no other conceivable purpose but to embar- 
rass the question, and lead the children astray. Again, 
question — " 10. The City of Boston has one hundred and 
twenty thousand inhabitants, half males, and its property 
liable to taxation is one hundred millions. It levies a poll 
tax of § of a dollar each on one half of its male popula- 



46 

tion. It taxes income to the amount of $50,000, and its 
whole tax is $770,000. What should a man pay whose 
taxable property amounts to $100,000?" — Is "income" 
" property," or not? If it be, then is it comprised in the 
u one hundred millions liable to taxation;" — if it be not, 
what is it? — Further, "It [the City] taxes income to the 
amount of $50,000" — what is this "$50,000;" the aggre- 
gate of income, on which the tax is levied? or, the sum, 
accruing to the City from that department of its whole 
tax ? To some mature minds these ambiguities of expres- 
sion, may be easy of interpretation. General business infor- 
mation may help men to a ready perception of the true terms 
of these questions. But children know nothing of " in- 
come tax;" it is not spoken of in text books: — nothing 
but the merest accident could ever have made such an out- 
of-the-way subject, the theme of a teacher's oral instruc- 
tions. And if they knew the terms, they have no concep- 
tion of the amount of income taxable in the City of Boston. 
Now, is it uncharitable, honest reader, to utter the suspi- 
cion that these three " questions, " were couched in such 
equivocal language, for the express purpose of making 
them unintelligible? and to hinder the scholars from apply- 
ing themselves to those arithmetical processes, by which 
the solution should be brought out? — Was it just, or manly 
to mystify what was addressed to children by such artifi- 
ces — to " darken counsel bywords?" and to render the 
meaning of their questions quite as problematical, as the 
way for their solution ? — These gentlemen did not by such 
means, contribute to elevate the tone of morals, in the 
Schools, about which their co\-leagues for the other depart- 
ment, discourse so much, and so feelingly. It is a danger- 
ous lesson for young Scholars, when the guardians of their 
education, deceive them with vain words, and show them 
how to use language with a double meaning. I would 
rather my child should detect fifty lies, told among his 
playmates, than be made the victim of one deception from 



47 

his superiors. The 100th of the Enigmas of Symposius 
would have been in good keeping with the " questions" to 
which I have adverted, and might have been fitly added 
as No. 11. 

Nunc mihi jam credes, fieri, quod posse negatur. 
Octo tenes manibus ; sed, me monstrante magistro, 
Sublatis septem, reliqui tibi sex remanebunt. 

But, I should do great injustice to this series of problems 
were I to pass it over with particular notice of only three 
of the ten which it embraces. No. " 5," to which (the 
Committee say,) no child gave a correct answer, is with- 
out a parallel in any text-books ever used in the Schools. 
Yet, if I am not in error, one hundred and twenty-six 
gave such an answer as would be pronounced correct in 
every Counting-House in Boston !— No. » 6," requires for 
its solution, the extraction of the Square root. No. "9 » 
is a direct inquest for the Square root of an involved frac- 
tion. Either one of these problems would in the process 
of solution require all the « blank space" left by the Com- 
mittee on their "single sheet." An accomplished Arith- 
metician may find it necessary in such a process to make 
several experiments, in which numerous figures are em- 
ployed, before he can fix upon that master-number, which 
will unlock every barrier, and open to him the object of 
his search. No. « 8," involves a legal point, which law- 
yers are at a loss how to decide. This was introduced 
probably, to verify the avowal of the Committee that their 
ten questions are "ona variety of subjects !" What sum 
shall remain due at the end of two years on a note for 
$5,000 payable at a Bank on demand, when " thirty days 
after the date of the note demand is made," unsuccess- 
fully, implies a question which must first be determined in 
Court Square, before the children in our Public Schools 
can venture to answer with mathematical certainty. 
What a set of questions is this ! Six of the ten obnox- 



ions to just criticism ! Three distinguished for u Machia- 
vellian" ambiguity : — two requiring the use of more figures 
than the given spaces would receive : — and one, involved 
beyond computation in the glorious uncertainty of the 
Law ! 

Forgive, reader, my prolixity on this branch of the ex- 
amination. 1 have been constrained to linger by reason 
of the multiform depravity by which it is characterized. 
Had the Committee been less versatile in their ingenuity, 
I had been at less trouble to expose its devices. We 
now take leave of " the Committee appointed to make the 
Annual examination of the Writing Schools," feeling — an 
uncertain pity, as we see them "non passibus aequis" fol- 
lowing in the track of the Superior Committee like little 
lulus striving to keep pace with " phis Aeneas," — feeling, 
that the subordination of their labors to those of the other 
Committee acquits us of the necessity of attributing an 
independence to their suggestions, which they themselves 
have not had the manliness to maintain ; — feeling too, re- 
gret that the Rev. Mr. Graves did not refuse to sign a Re- 
port which, (it, is notorious) he did not approve. 

This "City document" embracing the Reports of both 
the Grammar and Writing School Committees was made 
public in September. In the succeeding month it be- 
gan to reappear in Sections in " The Common School 
Journal," edited by the Hon. Horace Mann ; and, in sub- 
sequent numbers of that Semi-monthly was made the sub- 
ject of prolonged remark, and unqualified approbation. 
No man will be surprised at this, who has traced with us 
the " ante-natal history" of these Reports. So near a rela- 
tive might well be expected to embalm the honored relics ; 
and by his tender assiduities supply some facts for incor- 
poration into their post-mortem history. He has in his 
possession some mementos of the departed, which few have 
ever seen. Minutes of the examinations have been at Mr. 
Mann's disposal, which were no part of the Reports of the 



49 

Visiting Committees, to the Board. My remarks upon the 
"definitions" rendered by the Scholars, were predicated 
on those which were printed in the Appendix to the Gram- 
mar School Report, and not upon that " Comedy of Errors" 
which Mr. Mann has with irrepressible satisfaction wel- 
comed to the pages of his Journal. How came these pri- 
vate minutes, which were not even presented to the Board, 
in the hands of a stranger 1 Who had any authority to 
procure the publication of these extra-official Reports ? — 
The Board gave a reluctant consent to the circulation of 
the Reports which were rendered to them, but they never 
were asked if individual members, might distribute the 
manuscript notes, out of which those Reports were concoc- 
ted, to hungry journalists. The fact, that devoid of any 
license, and in opposition to the implied will of the Board, 
the minutes of the examining Committees were so prompt- 
ly rendered into the hands of the Hon. Horace Mann, gives 
a significancy to their remark, "they (the Masters,) seem 
to fear a secret power which may govern them, and the 
Committee too," which few will fail to apprehend ; and 
constitutes an occasion for that u fear" which none will 
gainsay or rebuke. 

A combination, if not a conspiracy seems to be betrayed 
by this quick communion of congenial minds, and inter- 
change of private papers which calls freshly to our recol- 
lection, the unfortunate conflict of the Boston masters, with 
the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, — 
and strengthens, almost to certainty, the suspicion that but 
for the denunciations which that Honorable functionary 
uttered in his first onset upon the " unlucky thirty-one," 
these subsidary Reports had never been conceived, or ren- 
dered. Mr. Mann, in his " Common School Journal" holds 
up his private minutes of examination in terrorem: " Let 
teachers, everywhere^ take warning from this exposure; " 
which means, perhaps, as far as it means any thing, Let 
all future dissentients from me learn to repress the expres- 
5 



50 

sion of their heterodox opinions. And, in the closing para- 
graph of his commentaries on the Reports, he indulges in 
the following felicitations. " As to the schools which have 
been the subject of this examination and report, we are sure 
that a better fortune awaits them. The day of improve- 
ment has dawned — has already arisen. # # * * If 
a reform is effected, then let the past be forgotten." Per- 
haps, the auspices of that day promised more than has been, 
or is now likely to be realized. The School Committee 
for 1846 has upon it but one individual of all those who, 
last year, kept the community in such a ferment by 
their new measures. Probably, the Editor of the School 
Journal is now ready to take up the lament of Cato : 
"The dawn's o'ercast, the morning lours." The reform, 
on which forgetfulness of the past, is in his proposals made 
contingent, — is not likely to be effected. The people have 
declared that they prefer those measures which have the 
sanction of experience, and those servants whose fidelity 
has been proved. And we have therefore, to apprehend 
that "the past" replete with threatenings which the pre- 
sent has not fully executed, and the future promises to de- 
fault, will not " be forgotten." A large proportion of the 
unlucky thirty-one, are still preserved from official "anni- 
hilation." Reform had less power, than enterprize ! 

The Annual examination of the schools was immedi- 
ately succeeded by the election of masters. There was 
one of them, whom in the beginning of the contest Mr. 
Mann had banished to the "opposite side of the moral uni- 
verse ;" At the annual election prodigious effort was made 
to set this moral exile free from any official restraints which 
might hinder his personal departure on the same mission 
in partibus infidelium. Alleged unfitness for the charge of 
a girls' school first procured his transfer to one for boys. 
Vague, unproven allegations are the most damning of all 
possible calumnies. " Omne ignotumpro magnijico est" 
The constituents of the boys' school, of course, objected. 



51 

Friends and foes all had sagacity enough to foresee that 
they would. The victim of this adroit manoeuvre, was 
then suspended until an investigation should be had. 
Great desire was expressed to render him justice. Super- 
fluous protestations fell from those who had placed a 
teacher, who for the last twenty years has been a blame- 
less servant of the City, in this painful position, that they 
earnestly desired to vote for his restoration, if only these 
unhappy imputations could be cleared up. A Committee 
was appointed to investigate. These reluctant opponents 
were represented on that Committee. In due time the 
Committee reported unanimously that the accused was en- 
tirely innocent, that "nothing had appeared to show Mr. 
F., to be unfit for the office of Grammar master of the 
Franklin School ! !" — And yet when the question recurred 
on his election — every one of those men, who had sub- 
jected him to this cruel process, voted against him ! ! ! — 
Guilty, or innocent, his place had been assigned on the 
opposite side of the universe by the dreaded " secret 
power," and thither, its willing instruments, would speed 
him on his way. No incident in the history of school pro- 
ceedings during the last year indicates more plainly the 
true origin of that gantlope through which the schools 
and their masters have been condemned to run. 

If the community regard the whole plan, and conduct of 
these examinations, which we have now passed under 
review, as we do, and believe that all was conceived, and 
pursued for the purpose of bringing the present school sys- 
tem, and the men by whom it is wrought, into disrepute; — 
(in the words to which Mr. Neale emphatically assented,) 
"to break the school down;" then it will not be slow to 
believe that the measures which the Committee recom- 
mend in the close of their Report, look to the same end. 
Let us very briefly advert to them. 

They first recommend the appointment of a Superinten- 
dent of Public Schools, — a sort of petty Secretary of a 



52 

Board of Education. If this could be effected, the whole 
contest which is now waged on the election of School Com- 
mittees, by the partizans of Mr. Mann, would be brought 
into a more convenient compass. Some amateur professor 
of " high motive powers," would be found ready for such 
an appointment; and, could he be elected, would promote 
reform with a high hand. They propose to give the city 
council a concurrent voice in the election of such an officer. 
This might prove convenient, if a decided majority of the 
School Committee were bent upon the choice of one, who 
would pursue a conservative policy. They wish to add to 
the present arrangements for school supervision, an ele- 
ment of "permanence," — and yet propose that this new 
functionary, in whom that element may subsist, shall be 
"chosen annually." The scheme is objectionable. It 
puts a mediator between the Committee and the schools, 
who may, or may not keep them fairly acquainted with 
each other. It creates a virtual substitute for the men 
whom the people appoint to take the oversight of their 
schools. It transfers the management of school concerns 
in part to the city council, who are chosen, and qualified 
for another department of the Public business. It creates 
a single officer, on whose individual fitness the educational 
interests of the whole city are too precious to be staked. 
It opens a way for the accomplishment of private ends, 
which the malignant, and designing, will contrive to 
occupy. God forbid, that such a measure should ever go 
into effect ! 

They next recommend, and urge with great prolixity 
of argument, the obliteration of the Writing Department, 
which is now under the charge of independent masters. 
This would, of course, answer one immediate end. It 
would annihilate at once, several of the unlucky. Against 
this project, it is only necessary to array the long experi- 
ence of the city. This Committee aim to give the impres- 
sion, that there is something monstrous in the existing 



53 

arrangement, — calling it for reproach sake, the "double- 
headed system." Now it is no more double-headed than 
this same Committee was triple-headed in the performance 
of their official work. They each took a separate school 
for examination. They divided the work to be done, — 
and wrought each in his individual capacity, till it was 
accomplished. They were not triple-headed, but triple 
throughout. So of the departments in our public schools, 
they are not an united body with two heads, but are 
altogether separate, except in the accident that they 
are both kept in one building. The system is no more 
monstrous, than that pursued in the education of almost 
every young lady, where resort is had to one teach- 
er for Music, to another for Drawing, and to a third 
•for French. By whatever odious name the system may 
be called, it has been in practice in this city for many 
years, and has been found efficient, and useful. In the 
long array of faults which this Committee allege against 
it, every one is leveled at the theory, while no fact is 
produced out of the long history of its actual operation, to 
sustain their ideal objections. Something more substantial 
than "paper bullets of the brain " will be needed, to drive 
the people from the support, and defence of institutions, 
from which they have experienced nothing but good. 

On the subject of corporal punishment, the Committee 
descant with almost exhaustless profusion of language. 
The material which they have presented on this theme, is 
attenuated in exact proportion to the length to which they 
have drawn it. After not a little luffing and bearing 
away, which perplexes the reader as to their real destina- 
tion, they come out with the honest avowal that they are 
bound nowhere, in the following language : " We shall 
not suggest any method to be adopted, but content our- 
selves with making a few further remarks upon the pres- 
ent, or rather the passing system." Now, when one 
system of government is said to be "passing," it would 
6* 



54 

seem almost time for them, who have wrought the fancied 
revolution, to be ready to "suggest some other method to 
be adopted." But it ever happens thus : the turbulent 
spirits who have the boldness to pull down what is old, 
rarely have the sagacity to construct the necessary substi- 
tutes. We have only space to notice one view of this 
topic, which, the Committee say, has great weight with 
them. " It is that which regards corporal punishment as 
peculiarly unsuited to our own schools, and to a system of 
education for this country." They thus state the political 
rights to which an American citizen is born : " He is free; 
free, for good or for evil. He sends his neighbor, or goes 
himself, to make all the laws which bind him ; and, if he 
does not like them, it is right for him to say so, and to use 
proper means to effect their change or repeal." * * * 
And then they subjoin the inquiry, "What must be the con- 
dition of him who comes into such a life as this, with no 
habit and no idea of self-government, beyond that which 
he could derive from corporal punishment 7 " In what we 
have quoted, the reader may learn the drift of their argu- 
ment. What hinders its application to the management of 
the household, nay, of the nursery itself? Because, when 
children ripen into manhood, they are never to " hear the 
word master again," therefore, by this Utopian logic, it 
should not be whispered to them in their infantile years ! 
Hopeful material they must be for a republic, who have 
grown up without any idea of subordination. Education 
does not begin in the school ; it commences in the moth- 
er's arms, — and if, to the training of a freeman, it be 
necessary that subjection shall never have been known, — 
the child should be " free, — free for good or for evil" from 
its birth. But does not the American citizen find that 
when he transgresses the law of his country, he certainly 
encounters punishment ; usually corporal punishment, — 
that is, such as applies to the body 1 The boy in school 
experiences no more than this. He suffers no punishment 



55 

when he breaks no law ; and the great majority of chil- 
dren do cultivate in the schools such a " habit," and 
acquire such " an idea of self-government," as enables 
them to avoid the infraction of law, and the consequent 
incurring of its penalty : — just as the majority of citizens 
in the republic, so govern themselves that its penal laws 
are not felt by them in the severity of their sanctions. 
The only respect in which the boy in school, and the man 
in the republic essentially differ, is that the one does not, 
and the other does partake in the making of the laws by 
which he is governed. 

On this very point, the argument of the Committee 
reaches too far. If to an American education it be needful, 
that the economy of the school shall be analogous to the 
Constitution of the State, then the little urchins should 
assemble in grand committee, appoint their own rulers, 
and devise and enact their own laws. Forsooth, — a view 
of the subject of corporal punishment, which opens directly 
upon such issues as this, " has great weight" with the 
Committee ! ! If this be one of their weightiest objections 
to the use of corporal punishment, of what gossamer sub- 
stance must those be made, which they account less 
grave ! We leave them to float away on the wings of 
their own folly. Let the restraints of law, imposed by 
mature, and judicious minds, and sanctioned, if need be, by 
prompt and efficient punishment, prevail in our schools, 
until fair experiment has somewhere shown, or witty 
invention can at least "suggest" a more excellent way. 

Our examination of this "City document — No 26," (not 
less entitled to notoriety than the " unlucky number") — 
is now closed. We submit it to the candor of the people, 
counseling them, if they can recover copies of those " Re- 
ports," from the heaps of rubbish and waste paper to 
which they have been consigned, to re-examine them in 
the light of this Review. Certain papers of the City will 
probably teem with abusive notices of our poor labors, 



56 

into which a line of rejoinder can in no wise be admitted. 
We could name them with prophetic accuracy, and tell 
the public some reasons of " great weight." But they are 
entitled to a new experiment of their honesty, and impar- 
tiality. Far be it from me to preclude their amendment 
by untimely exposure. 

Citizens of Boston, who have received your education 
at the Public Schools. — One who has watched with more 
than a spectator's interest, this tragical assault upon the 
men who have taught many of you, and upon the insti- 
tutions in which you have all been reared, laments with 
"keen regret -that the children who have now left the 
Boston schools have gone out so ignorant."* His monody 
was called forth by the " exposures " of these Reports. 
You are the subjects of this pungent grief. It appeals to 
your own consciousness, — demands of your benevolent 
memories, that you should well consider whether you can 
rightfully receive so much sympathy. Have you • ' gone 
out so ignorant of the first principles of Geography," and 
other substantial branches, as to fill the magi of education 
with "keen regret?" Have you found the instruction 
which you received at the Public schools insufficient for the 
purposes of life? You know something of the condition 
of these institutions, something of the character, qualifica- 
tions, and fidelity of their masters, which you learnt before 
those Reports were published. Your knowledge is the 
fruit of experience and observation; you may be confident 
of its correctness. Are the Reports fair presentations of 
the schools, and teachers ? — It belongs to you, in your sev- 
eral spheres of influence to express, and enact .your con- 
victions, respecting the truth or falsehood of these preten- 
ded " exposures." If there be any debt of gratitude 
credited to the schools and their masters, on the ledger of 
your hearts, pay it, in vindication of their envied fame ! 
Let filial duty prompt you to repel with generous indigna- 

* Common School Journal, vol. vn, p. 356. 



57 

tion, every unjust assault, whether made with weapons of 
hostility, or in the disguise of friendship, on the schools 
and the men, that have reared you. And guard for your 
children's sake those provisions for common education, 
which your fathers, and yourselves have proved to be cor- 
rect in principle, and efficient in practice. Let no reform- 
ing zealots cobble, — till there shall be nothing left fit for 
their acceptance, — the children's heritage — a good public 
school system. 

I might well appeal to the parents of those scholars, 
who, at the last annual examination, were put to the 
torture, that the Committee might elicit from them 
" what they did not know," and obfuscate what they did. 
But there might be some mingling of wounded paternal 
pride, in the response which their judgments would accord 
were I to ask them, if their children are deficient in all 
the attainments which befit their age, — if they cannot 
read intelligently, — compute numbers with skill and ex- 
actness, — and give such accounts of the earth, and the 
divisions which mark its surface, as to manifest a com- 
petent knowledge of the science of Geography. I forbear, 
scorning to invoke any other expression, than such as may 
come from an un warped judgment. 

There are men, unprejudiced, high in character, accom- 
plished in education, venerable for years, as for virtues, 
who can speak knowingly of the established character of 
the Boston Schools, and of the tried fidelity of most of the 
teachers. Other Committees, in whom the public have 
some confidence had visited them before 1845. Their tes- 
timony is on record. And, not only so — many of them live 
to repeat it with their tongues. Speak out, ye whose 
knowledge, and position clothe your words with authority. 
Vindicate the truth of your commendatory Reports, or ac- 
knowledge that your examinations were, as one of your 
successors has intimated tc a mere farce." Have you will- 
fully or carelessly kept the City ignorant that "other 



58 

schools are better than the most of ours ;" so your succes- 
sors of 1845 have recorded the evidence of their senses. 
Such a state of things as presented itself to their percep- 
tions, could not have grown to maturity in a single year. 
The same system, and, in many schools the same masters 
have presided for fifteen or twenty years. Why were 
not their gross deficiencies discovered before? — Quincy 
and Shaw, Gould and Savage, Young and Winslow, Par- 
ker and Eliot, Chairmen of Examining Committees in 
former years, how shall we account for the praises of 
Boston schools — and teachers, which we find subscribed 
with your names ? — Were you, and all your predecessors 
confederates, and successors, A. U. C, deceiving or being 
deceived, until they of 1845, by keener sagacity, or loftier 
integrity elicited, and proclaimed the unwelcome truth, 
" that the Grammar Schools of Boston have not the excel- 
lence and usefulness they should possess? " — Have you — 
the many, or they — the fete — transcribed for posterity the 
true record of our common scholastic advantages ? — Recur- 
ring to the list of grave, and reverend men who in other 
days have honored the schools with their supervision and 
approval, we cannot but deprecate that the mantle of their 
office should fall in later times, on the visionary, and the 
pert. The Seal of the City may well be adopted as the 
prayer of her inhabitants,- when it is found enstamped on 
such a " Document," as we have now reviewed. — " Sicut 

PATRIBUS SIT DEUS NOBIS." 

SCHOLIAST. 



LJ.BKHKY U»- CUNURESS 



000 987 294 2 



